Literally in the closet. Hating on the Life of Ryan on Youtube. That was late spring. Good times (minus the Kristina's ACL tear and two broken phones).
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Skaters in the closet
Literally in the closet. Hating on the Life of Ryan on Youtube. That was late spring. Good times (minus the Kristina's ACL tear and two broken phones).
RAIN
Last year torrential rain meant no skating.
Right now it means F-YEAH! because I don't have go to work (landscaping). I got to lay in bed and watch these really great legs in knee high socks and underwear. She's scrambling to catch the BART to work. I get to sit with hot tea while rain pelts against the window, and look over all the San Francisco houses smashed together in tight rows.
I watched this English movie called Imagine Me and You. Imagine if you married this really really great guy who was your best friend... but you were gay...... Hmmm. Anyways, the really really great guy I married and I promised to celebrate the bitter-sweetness of our separation by drinking a bottle of wine we'd bought in Italy. We'd been toting it around for the last 7 years, waiting for a special occasion to open it. I guess one could look at separating as a special occasion. "This is a testament to our relationship" he said smiling, holding up the dusty bottle, "sometimes its easier for us to abstain then to actually do things." We laughed. I took the big caste iron pan and he took the blender and coffee maker. We divided up the knives.
Summer onward was this big blur... something like stress and sadness layered over relief and being in love with this girl (adult female I should say). Her homeless, us moving into a cramped room, the house infested with fleas, both scrambling for work, not breaking even, my internet modem broke, my phone broke, her phone broke, her camera broke, her computer broke, mine is out of memory, my transmission went out, my car brakes failed, her car brakes failed, we biked only, 2.75 jobs each, night school, still not breaking even, flea bites, SLAG emails, not surfing, not skating, not writing, a really really pathetic yoga practice, trying to get health insurance, bike repairs, no money for the BART, separate bank accounts, coming out to family ("its never going to be the same again..." ...your telling me!), separate car insurance, AAA, really cheap groceries, and eating lots of brown rice and beans. (Also really nice picnics in the park btw.)
Now I have not only sugar, in the cupboard, but honey and maple syrup too! Life is amazing.
Right now it means F-YEAH! because I don't have go to work (landscaping). I got to lay in bed and watch these really great legs in knee high socks and underwear. She's scrambling to catch the BART to work. I get to sit with hot tea while rain pelts against the window, and look over all the San Francisco houses smashed together in tight rows.
I watched this English movie called Imagine Me and You. Imagine if you married this really really great guy who was your best friend... but you were gay...... Hmmm. Anyways, the really really great guy I married and I promised to celebrate the bitter-sweetness of our separation by drinking a bottle of wine we'd bought in Italy. We'd been toting it around for the last 7 years, waiting for a special occasion to open it. I guess one could look at separating as a special occasion. "This is a testament to our relationship" he said smiling, holding up the dusty bottle, "sometimes its easier for us to abstain then to actually do things." We laughed. I took the big caste iron pan and he took the blender and coffee maker. We divided up the knives.
Summer onward was this big blur... something like stress and sadness layered over relief and being in love with this girl (adult female I should say). Her homeless, us moving into a cramped room, the house infested with fleas, both scrambling for work, not breaking even, my internet modem broke, my phone broke, her phone broke, her camera broke, her computer broke, mine is out of memory, my transmission went out, my car brakes failed, her car brakes failed, we biked only, 2.75 jobs each, night school, still not breaking even, flea bites, SLAG emails, not surfing, not skating, not writing, a really really pathetic yoga practice, trying to get health insurance, bike repairs, no money for the BART, separate bank accounts, coming out to family ("its never going to be the same again..." ...your telling me!), separate car insurance, AAA, really cheap groceries, and eating lots of brown rice and beans. (Also really nice picnics in the park btw.)
Now I have not only sugar, in the cupboard, but honey and maple syrup too! Life is amazing.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Saturday Day Off
What was planned:
-9am-11am: surfing and going to farmers market
-11am-4:30am: grocery shopping, skating or biking at least
What actually happened:
-9am-11am: mended pants
-11am-5:o0pm: caught up on the internet. (Most of the time spent catching up on the SLAG SF gmail and organizing the 800 messages in my inbox).
What I planned to drink:
coffee from a coffee shop
What I drank:
That instant cappuccino packet and it gave me a stomach ache
I ate frozen english muffins.
It was a good day and the sun shown through the windows, and I followed it around the house with my laptop. I really want to get out of the house. I feel stale. Signing out for a 60 cent pork bun and street skating.
-9am-11am: surfing and going to farmers market
-11am-4:30am: grocery shopping, skating or biking at least
What actually happened:
-9am-11am: mended pants
-11am-5:o0pm: caught up on the internet. (Most of the time spent catching up on the SLAG SF gmail and organizing the 800 messages in my inbox).
What I planned to drink:
coffee from a coffee shop
What I drank:
That instant cappuccino packet and it gave me a stomach ache
I ate frozen english muffins.
It was a good day and the sun shown through the windows, and I followed it around the house with my laptop. I really want to get out of the house. I feel stale. Signing out for a 60 cent pork bun and street skating.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Session at the Ranch
Thanks to Lisa Whitaker at TheSideProject for putting together this video as well as the last one posted. She is by far one of the raddest people out there. EVER.
After this skate session (which followed GSG), we got a midnight tour of the bulls... "The Ranch" is truly a ranch and the bowl we skate is inside a true barn. The bulls were quite onery. Turns out they are famous... prize bulls, valued for their genes. Their semen is sold all over the US and Europe. Maybe you are thinking the same thing we were... like, um, how does one collect bull semen? Well, in case you don't know but have an inquiring mind, they have a fake plastic cow that the bull mounts... and the semen goes through a tube in the fake cow and collects in a bag. Then its frozen/preserved with liquid nitrogen. We were told by our guide, that there is another way to collect it... that he doesn't agree with so much... something about an electric probe in the anus... ok, maybe this is TMI for a skate blog. Anyways, the calves were a little friendlier, and they licked our hands with giant twisting tongues, which were rough, like grip tape. They were sweet, made the girls talk about being vegetarian and all that. Eventually we fell asleep on the ramp.
In the morning we headed to San Francisco for a couple more days of skating with the girls. Kristina ollied the gap at 3rd and Army, then she tried to kickflip it but it was pretty windy, and she busted her knee, which was a real bummer. Then Abisha rolled her ankle. I fell on my phone and broke it... then Kristina broke her phone. At the end of the day there were 7 girls jammed in my closet watching youtube videos and mad-hating-on 'the life of Ryan'. It was priceless. If you want to see pictures of "the closet" and this entire adventure you can find them on TheSideProject blog (link posted above).
After this skate session (which followed GSG), we got a midnight tour of the bulls... "The Ranch" is truly a ranch and the bowl we skate is inside a true barn. The bulls were quite onery. Turns out they are famous... prize bulls, valued for their genes. Their semen is sold all over the US and Europe. Maybe you are thinking the same thing we were... like, um, how does one collect bull semen? Well, in case you don't know but have an inquiring mind, they have a fake plastic cow that the bull mounts... and the semen goes through a tube in the fake cow and collects in a bag. Then its frozen/preserved with liquid nitrogen. We were told by our guide, that there is another way to collect it... that he doesn't agree with so much... something about an electric probe in the anus... ok, maybe this is TMI for a skate blog. Anyways, the calves were a little friendlier, and they licked our hands with giant twisting tongues, which were rough, like grip tape. They were sweet, made the girls talk about being vegetarian and all that. Eventually we fell asleep on the ramp.
In the morning we headed to San Francisco for a couple more days of skating with the girls. Kristina ollied the gap at 3rd and Army, then she tried to kickflip it but it was pretty windy, and she busted her knee, which was a real bummer. Then Abisha rolled her ankle. I fell on my phone and broke it... then Kristina broke her phone. At the end of the day there were 7 girls jammed in my closet watching youtube videos and mad-hating-on 'the life of Ryan'. It was priceless. If you want to see pictures of "the closet" and this entire adventure you can find them on TheSideProject blog (link posted above).
Monday, June 1, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Raccoons doing it.
FYI: This Blog is deteriorating. Yes. You might read it and feel like you just listened to some message I left in your voice mail that was too long and got cut off. My suggestion is that if you want to read more about girls skating, you should log into the Skate Like A Girl San Francisco blog. In fact I recently wrote a little story about a game of S.K.A.T.E. There are other writers for that blog too, just in case you're getting tired of hearing me.
Anyways... being sick again, filling up on miso soup and tea and chocolate. My right eye keeps gooping up. A never ending chain of texts, emails, phone calls, instant messaging. A tour almost underway. Fundraising. SLAG in Pride. Updating websites. Meetings. After school programs. Skateparks being built. More girls learning to skate. Demos. GSG. (Speaking of GSG, Amy Caron just wrote a song about it, check it out: GSG Song... wait, I can't figure out how to post this... I'll do it later, or email it upon your request)
I took a little lunch break today and watched a skate video. Bad idea... shouldn't do that when I'm trying to rest and get well and resist the urge to skate and all that. After the video I looked out the window to see if the raccoons were chilling on the fire escape. They were totally doing it so I snapped these shots (I know, no privacy but c'mon, they were right outside my window which was open... and it was broad daylight... but then again maybe nocturnal animals doing it mid-day is like humans doing it in the middle of the night. At least they were quiet, not like the neighbors, geez! No, the neighbors weren't doing it on the fire escape, but still, even with my ipod in it was too much information.
Have a meeting at the wine bar now. Romantic eh?
Monday, May 11, 2009
PDX--->
Meeting. Nailing down the SLAG summer tour. Website tutorial. Dutch Brothers across the street. Pouring rain. Cat fur and spray and kittens everywhere. Dog poop. Peeing on the lawn. Enough sunshine for lil mini-ramp sessions. Flip-tricks in the street. I didn't take a shower or change my clothes for 3 days. I learned too late that if you try to catch an earlier flight and its not the same day that you pay $100... so I slept in the airport, and the next day, when I boarded standby, they gave my grubby self a fist class seat and put my skate in the special coat check. Thank god for ipods and good friends that write handwritten letters. Thats enough to make me feel like the luckiest SOB ever.
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